A farm manager who ran over and killed his young son in a farm accident near Gisborne has been sentenced to 40 hours community work.
Stuart Bryan Helm, 33, had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to a charge of careless driving causing the death of his 2-year-old son Kitt Baxter Helm. The accident happened at Motu last September. He appeared for sentencing before Judge Tony Adeane in Gisborne District Court this morning.
Counsel Bryony Shackell applied for a community-based sentence in lieu of disqualification.
Judge Adeane agreed to grant it, noting police opposition turned on Helm's "certain previous convictions".
"But those convictions were different in character and did not involve the same issues," the judge said.